"And I've received a notice that I'm to be burned as a witch next Tuesday."
"Umm, that's nice, babe. Is there any more coffee in the pot?"
"Because, silly me, I thought that living in Salem, Virginia, would be different than living in Salem, Massachusetts, where I lived the last time I was burned at the stake. But, of course, it's not at all differentâexcept that here we have unicorns."
Mary Lou leaned over Doug's chair at the breakfast table and rubbed her chest against his cheek as she poured him another cup of coffee. He murmured a pleasantry, but he didn't take his eyes off the newspaper he was reading. She'd worn a skimpy teddy, with nearly transparent material, to breakfast, but it wasn't doing any more good than it did last night when Doug had begun to snore while she was still brushing her teeth.
"Did you see what the Salem city council wants to do now, babe? They raise the reservoir two feet and those walking trails will be covered."
"I painted my nipples purple last night? Like them?"
"Ummm. Wouldn't ya think dredging would be cheaper in the long run?"
"Or I could just burn the house down around me before you come home tonight and save the vigilante's the trouble." Mary Lou returned the empty coffee pot to kitchen counterâshe'd been saving the last cup for herself later; she'd have brew more nowâand returned to her seat. She let out a long, drawn-out sigh as she sat down, which Doug didn't notice. Nor did he notice when she then acted like she had to stretch and let an ample tit pop out of her nightie.
The nipple wasn't purple, of course. It was pinkish brown, but she had thought about painting it purple last night. Before they had married Doug had said that purple was his "turn on" color. Just as well she hadn't made the effort.
"Ah, yes, coming home tonight," Doug said as he, too, let out a long sigh, folded his paper, placed it on the table beside the breakfast plate Mary Lou has lovingly spent more than a half hour preparing for him and that he hardly acknowledgedâand had just brushed the garnishes off to the sideâand stood up from the table. He vaguely smiled in Mary Lou's direction, but his focus was on getting his arm in the sleeve of the jacket, the lining of which Mary Lou had just resewn last evening because he had a habit of thrusting his hand at the sleeve opening and missing.
That had been Mary Lou's only moments of arousal last evening. When he'd been attentiveâwhenever in the past that had beenâhe'd had a vigorous thrust of something else. Thinking of what he did to his jackets had been what had prompted Mary Lou to make the bedroom effortâthe totally unsuccessful effortâthe previous night.
"About coming home," he continued. "Stan's bowling team is down one again. He asked if I could fill in."
"Again?" Mary Lou asked. She had frozen at the first mention of Stan's name. "Seems like that guy you substitute for is out more than he's there."
"Yeah, seems that way. Anyway, I'll be pretty late. I'll catch something at the alley."
"Yeah, I am half-way afraid of that," Mary Lou said under breath. "Better stock up on penicillin."
"Eh, what was that?" Doug almost . . . oh, happy day . . . almost looked directly at Mary Lou now. But not quite.
"I said I doubt they fix a very nutritious meal at the bowling alley. I can leave something in the fridge for you to warm up, if youâ"
"Don't bother," he said to the kitchen wall as he opened the door to the garage. "I'll just catch something at the alley."
And then he was gone.
"Oh, it's no bother. No bother at all," Mary Lou said in a low, pouty voice. But of course it had become a bother. One of the hairdressers at the salon, a perky little blonde with practically no meat on her bones and unnaturally big bazoomsâSamantha was her name; nice girl, really, if you managed to look beyond the cleavage . . . Sam, she liked to be calledâhad let the shyster out of the bag.
"I didn't know that the Doug I see at the Go Go Lounge was your Doug, Mrs. T," she'd said over the noise of the hairdryer. "Sorry I even mentioned it. Tuesday nights, regular now, though."
Mary Lou had already known that Samantha was also an exotic dancerâat least that's what they were called now in Salem, which loved to speak in euphemisms. Of course, she hadn't learned that until after she'd already grown fond of the batty little thing and included her in an eclectic little kaffee-klatsch that provided nearly the only rush that Mary Lou got at all these days.
Mary Lou pulled the cup of coffee across the table from where Doug had been sitting and took a sip. He'd barely taken a drink from the cup himself. He'd suddenly become interested in letting Mary Lou know he'd be late tonightâTuesday nightâand then was hot to trot out of there.
"Reality time," Mary Lou muttered to the empty breakfast room. "Time to decide whether you're better with him than without him, girl."
She looked around the breakfast room and through to the kitchen. She'd just gotten the place the way she liked it. Doug's last promotion at the LeeHunt pharmaceutical lab over in Roanoke had made life suddenly easier for them. It was even time to start making that family they'd promised to have as soon as they were on solid financial ground. Doug loved kids. Mary Lou couldn't help but worry that he was putting off having a family more because he was putting Mary Lou off. She'd done everything she could think of to be a loving wife to him.
Now, when starting a family had become the next thing on the agenda, Doug was acting this way. Had they waited too long? Did midlife crises come in your early thirties now?